Sunday, June 12 2005 11:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Health Ministry is planning to make the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act stricter to prevent misleading claims on drugs.

The draft changes have been presented to the Health Minister and these would soon be sent to the Law Ministry for approval, senior officials said.

"Currently, the law does not have much teeth. There is very less penalty for violation with the result that offenders get away easily," they said.

The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954, controls advertisements on drugs and in certain cases prohibits advertisements on remedies alleged to possess magic qualities.

The punishment for violations is only six months to one year of imprisonment. The proposal is to enhance it to one to three years of imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 for the first conviction and to three-five years along with a fine of Rs 50,000 for subsequent convictions, they said.

There have been several incidents in which claims to cure diseases such as epilepsy and cancer have been made through some magic treatment. Unless substantiated by scientific documents and clinical trials, these should not be allowed, they said.